How to Calculate Gas Mileage

Before driving on a full tank of gas, record the mileage and then record it again when on near empty. Use two mileage numbers to calculate gas mileage the with help from a math teacher in this free video on math applications.

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Video Transcript

So how do you calculate gas mileage? Hi. I'm Jimmy Chang. I've been teaching college mathematics for nine years. And there's actually a fairly simple process to do that. There's just a couple of conditions that you want to meet before calculating your gas mileage. So here we go. Always make sure that your tank is nearly empty before refilling. Now, you definitely don't want your car to break down, running out of gas on the side of the road, but make sure that your tank is as close to empty as possible. You know the car will give you some warning signs if you have to refill. So make sure it gets to at least that point before refilling. But once you're at that point, refill. But before you drive on that full tank of gas after refilling, record your mileage before driving on this full tank. So let this mileage be mileage 1, just to keep that in mind. Now once you have a full tank, drive on that full tank as far as you can until this new tank is nearly empty. Again, the car is going to give you a warning sign that says you need to refill. But until it gets to that point, continue driving. Now before you're refilling though, record this next mileage. So call this new mileage, mileage #2. So you had a mileage 1 that you had before driving on the new tank. And after driving towards near empty on this new tank, you have mileage 2. Now, we're now at the gas mileage formula. Basically, you take the mileage 2 minus the mileage 1. Remember, that's the mileage that you recorded before driving on the new tank. And then divide by the number of gallons that it takes to refill on your new tank. And that will give you an idea as to how fuel efficient your car is. So I'm Jimmy Chang, and that is how you calculate your gas mileage.